Abstract

The time-harmonic eddy current problem with either voltage or current intensity excitation is considered. We propose and analyze a new finite element approximation of the problem, based on a weak formulation where the main unknowns are the electric field in the conductor, a scalar magnetic potential in the insulator and, for the voltage excitation problem, the current intensity. The finite element approximation uses edge elements for the electric field and nodal elements for the scalar magnetic potential, and an optimal error estimate is proved. Some numerical results illustrating the performance of the method are also presented.